You
may have read recent press reports on the potential presence of trace
amounts pharmaceutical chemicals in water supplies around the country.

MWRA Water Comes
From Well Protected Sources

Almost all other water
systems take their supply from rivers and lakes into which wastewater
is discharged. The principal source of many of the trace amounts of pharmaceutical
chemicals found in those supplies is from wastewater.

MWRA's protected
watersheds have NO wastewater discharges into the reservoirs or tributaries.
Any area within the MWRA watershed which has dense enough development
to require sewers has those sewers pumped to a treatment plant OUTSIDE
the watershed.

MWRA's watersheds
are so well protected that federal and state regulations only require
disinfection treatment (without the addition of a filtration removal
step). Most other water systems have sources which are less protected,
more developed, and more polluted, and even much more extensive treatment,
may find additional chemicals in their water.

Another possible source
that affects many other water systems is extensive livestock operations.
Natural and artificial hormones and other pharmaceutical compounds can
runoff from these operations into streams and get into water supplies.
MWRA has purchased and eliminated almost every commercial livestock operation
within its watersheds.

MWRA's Ozone Treatment
Would Destroy Most Pharmaceutical Chemicals

In 2005, MWRA began
treating the water at the new John J. Carroll Water Treatment Plant, using
a state of the art ozonation system. In addition to providing excellent
disinfection, and improved taste and clarity, ozone is a powerful oxidant.
While MWRA does not expect that tests will show any pharmaceutical compounds
in its source water, it is reassuring that recent research indicates that
the type of ozone disinfection process currently being used by MWRA is
effective at oxidizing and destroying these types of compounds.

MWRA Has Been Actively
Following This Issue

MWRA water comes from
the well protected Wachusett and Quabbin watersheds in central Massachusetts,
and based on what the most current research indicates about the sources
of these chemicals, MWRA believes there is little possibility for them
to be present in our drinking water.

MWRA takes our responsibilities
for the safety of our water and the confidence of our customers extremely
seriously. While the Environmental Protection Agency has not set standards
for any pharmaceutical compounds, nor required testing for them, MWRA
has joined with other water systems, the University of Massachusetts,
and the American Waterworks Association Research Foundation (AwwaRF) to
test for them in our source water, and to research how well existing treatment
techniques destroy them. That work funded jointly by the water systems,
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the AwwaRF, is
under way.

As always, once MWRA
receives the data, we will make it available to the public. MWRA has extensive
information about water quality on our website www.mwra.com
and a water quality information line to respond to questions - 617-242-5323.

In addition, MWRA regularly tests for two potential endocrine disrupting compounds and has recently tested for another eight - plus caffeine (which is an indicator of the presence of wastewater in drinking water.) None of these 11 compounds were found in MWRA's source water.

What About the
Wastewater?

While MWRA does not
expect to find any of these pharmaceutical compounds in the drinking water,
they are, of course, in the wastewater. Any natural or artificial chemical
excreted by people or dumped into sinks and toilets ends up in wastewater.

MWRA and many other
wastewater agencies have been concerned about this issue, and are working
to understand the implications of their presence and to reduce them at
the source. After being treated at the Deer Island wastewater treatment
plant, MWRA's treated wastewater is discharged 9.5 miles into deep water
in Massachusetts Bay, far from any water supplies.

You can help by properly
disposing of any excess drugs. While there are currently no programs in
the metro Boston area that allow you to return excess drugs to the pharmacy,
you can still help out. Don't flush them down your toilet, double bag
them in plastic and put them in the trash.